Last Saturday morning I took Miguel to a birthday party for a little boy in our church.  Mike was so excited about going, exclaiming, “I LOVE parties!!!”  I took him out the day before and we picked out a few gifts for Aiden.  Mike had lots of fun perusing the goodies at the Gingerbread House and saying, “I think Aiden would like THIS.  Ooooh, Aiden would like THIS!”

When we arrived at the party, Mike was a bit overwhelmed, and he spent some time just sitting on the couch holding his Lil’Kinz cow (”Miss Maria”) and taking in all the activity.  Finally he warmed up and joined in the various activities.  We played with play-doh, listened to a story from a book, ate cupcakes decorated like frogs, and watched Aiden open his presents.  All in all I think Mike found the whole experience fascinating.

When we left the party Mike was handed a goodie bag to take home.  We got in the van and then Mike started unpacking his bag.  What fun to discover the silver noisemaker!  He honked and squawked all the way home.  Then he found a piece of candy which I unwrapped for him.  The mysterious box with a string on top was hard to open, so I helped Mike get it started.  Once the cardboard layer was opened, I handed it back to Mike so he could get the inside part open.  He worked and worked, and finally the treasure was revealed.

“Oh!  It’s a TREAT!”, he exclaimed.  I smiled when I realized that Mike had never opened a box of animal crackers before, especially one decorated like a circus wagon.  I pondered over what he must have been thinking as he was working on opening the box.  He didn’t know there were cookies in there.  I guess we take a lot of things for granted in life.  We assume that children know a lot more than they do.  And sometimes we assume they DON’T know a lot more than they do.  :-)  Many times my children have surprised me by washing dishes carefully, cracking open an egg perfectly, or writing their name when I didn’t know they could even spell their name!

Alas, my pondering must come to an end.  I am surrounded by children who need my attention.  Not only are my children here, but we have three little visitors who are the ages of Amelia, Mike and Judah.  I have a baby on my back, one who wants to be in my arms, and lots of other little voices and noises and questions filling my ears.

If you like, you can share with me a time when one of your kids surprised you.